Atlanta Metropolitan State College

Students

Appeals, Refunds, and Withdrawals

APPEALS PROCESS

A student who has lost eligibility for financial aid under these Standards of Academic Progress may feel that there were unforeseeable circumstances that prevented them from meeting these requirements. In such cases, the student will adhere to the following appeals process.

The first step is to complete the student appeals form.

The student must document mitigating circumstance that resulted in performing below the published standards.

The student will return the Financial Aid Appeal Form back to the Financial Aid Office.

The Standards of Academic Progress Committee will review the Appeal Form, and will determine whether the appeal is granted. The student will be advised in writing of the decision

Credit Balances

Credit balances exist when a student's financial aid, grants and loans exceed a student's tuition and fees. The issuance of refunds to students who have credit balances on their account will be determined by the semester start date and the official drop/add period, and verification of attendance. Scholarships, grants and loans will be officially credited to the student's account the day after the published verification of attendance ends. Refunds will be issued to students within fourteen days after financial aid is officially credited to the student's account. Students who are awarded financial aid after the drop and add period ends will have their funds disbursed to their account immediately and a refund will be issued within fourteen days.

Withdrawals & Refunds

As part of the Higher Education Amendment Act of 1998, Congress passed regulations that dictate what happens to a student's federal financial aid when a student completely withdraws from the college during any given semester. The HOPE Scholarship program requires that colleges apply this same refund policy to HOPE Scholarship recipients who completely withdraw.

Even though students are awarded and have federal and/or HOPE funds disbursed to them at the beginning of the semester the student is required to 'earn' the financial aid disbursed to them by attending classes up until at least 60% of the semester has passed.

When a student completely withdraws from the college before 60% of the semester has expired the student has failed to 'earn' all of the financial aid that they received and therefore, the student may be required to repay a portion of the federal and/or HOPE Scholarships funds back to the appropriate programs.

Atlanta Metropolitan State College must calculate the portion of the federal financial aid and/ or HOPE Scholarship that a student has 'earned' and is entitled to is based on the day of the student's complete withdrawal from the college. The formula that is used for this calculation is a formula prescribed by the federal guidelines that govern the federal financial aid programs.

The refund calculation is based on the total number of days in the semester and the total number of days that a student attended classes before the student completely withdraws from the college.

If a student receives more aid than they 'earned' then the 'unearned' portion of the student's aid must be returned. A student may owe money back to the U.S. Department of Education and Atlanta Metropolitan State College.

Students who enroll at Atlanta Metropolitan State College and decide, for any reason, that they no longer want to be enrolled at the college must officially withdraw from classes. Students can obtain the withdrawal form and documentation covering the procedures for withdrawing from the Registrar's Office.

Failure to properly withdraw from classes may result in the student receiving failing grades in all of their classes as well as negatively impacting the student's eligibility for financial aid.